Street Tree Planting

[RobD]

All,

 

I wondered if someone could throw some light on the following conundrum with regard to street tree planting.

 

A number of trees need to be planted within a pavement outside a city new build. The specified position means that there are a number of services in conflict with the area proposed.

 

My question(s) are:

 

• If there is depth and width enough to plant on top of some services and hence the services will run under the tree – is this acceptable to a LA and the service providers for future maintenance?

• Assuming the above is unacceptable – what are the alternatives other than re-routing said services?

o Do LA’s welcome large ‘designer’ planting containers (self irrigating) that can accommodate trees to 15m? and which are able to be moved (by crane) should the services need to be maintained in the future.

o Are ‘built-up’ planting pits commonly used? i.e. open bottomed contained structures able to provide enough depth to plant semi-mature trees allowing natural root growth below the pavement but outside the contained unit?

 

Hoping you can throw some ideas my way.

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[treediver]

If you do alot of amenity planting the definative book on the subject is 'Tree Roots In The Built Environment'. Reseach for amenity trees No8.

[Steve Bullman]

i seem to recall reading in a book that if you were going to plant above any pipes to plant directly on top rather than to the side. not my field though really, im sure someone will pipe up on this soon! scuse the unintentional pun!

[Amelanchier]

If you are happy with a short term tree placement then you can plant suitable species as Steve says, depending on the services. But eventually it all gets dug up.

 

Best avoid the conflict - move something. Trees or services... Spend now and save later.

 

Have no idea about containerised trees. You'd have to do an impact study, a risk assessment, a feasibility study, a crossword then write "I take all the blame" 100 times...

[Alex]

The pepole to speack to are Barshums or Hilliarys for info on container grown trees and street tree planting and estabilsment. Both have very good cataloges with a lot of info.

 

As for the services I with Tony, avoid the conflict.

[Paul Barton]

The NJUG publication on trees and services is pretty good - here is a link to here you can download it.

 

It seems there are no definitive restrictions on how close to services trees can be planted as their root spread is not predictable and damage to services not certain. However it obviously suggests that trees be planted in separate areas if possible.

 

As long as the services are deeper than 600m the tree roots should not affect them too much - the only problem is if repair works need to be carried out. There are guidelines for the service contractors to follow for this such as not trenching if possible but in reality I don't think many follow this.

 

http://www.njug.demon.co.uk/pdf/NJUG%20Publication10.pdf